


Sleep Talking

by Katiemonz



Category: TWRP | Tupper Ware Remix Party (Band)
Genre: Family, Friendship, Gen, Slice of Life, because thats what they aaaarrreee, bros being bros, its 4 am and they get a little deep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-11
Updated: 2018-10-11
Packaged: 2019-07-29 17:02:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16268552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katiemonz/pseuds/Katiemonz
Summary: It's a normal night at the TWRP house, until the boys hear a voice they've never heard before.





	Sleep Talking

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! This is my first TWRP fic, and the boys were so fun to write. Hope you enjoy it :)

Meouch had just polished off a glass of water and was getting ready to return to bed when he heard it. A voice. A voice he’d never heard before, in the house, at 4:02 in the morning. At first, he thought it was the TV in the living room (sometimes Havve would watch infomercials, as he inexplicably found them entertaining), but a quick check revealed nothing but a dark room and an empty sofa.

His second thought was that he was just imagining the voice, in the same way a dream can stick around and feel real after waking. But no, the sound persisted even after he questioned its existence, which, from his experience, told him it was real. Then, of course, came his third thought, which was a thought that he really didn’t enjoy thinking while he was wearing his pajamas, sleepy and defenseless, at four in the morning.

Thought number three was that someone had broken in while they were all asleep.

Meouch froze in place, the fur of his mane standing on end as he ran through the possibilities. Were they being robbed? Was someone here to murder them? Was this an old enemy from elsewhere in the universe that had finally caught up to them? Either way, whoever it was wouldn’t escape their crappy, small, single-story home without getting an ass-beating first.

Meouch crept down the hall as silently as he could, ears flicking this way and that every time he heard the voice. It sounded quiet, mumbly, almost slurred. He mentally added “drunken brawl” to his growing list of things that could potentially happen tonight. He slipped into his bedroom, careful not to let the door squeak, and ducked down by his cluttered desk. Wedged between the desk and the wall were scrapped parts of broken bass guitars he’d collected over the years, with the vague intention of cobbling together a Frankenstein bass one of these days. He reached in and pulled out the detached neck of a busted five-string, weighing it in his hands. This would do.

He snuck back out, makeshift weapon in hand (they had laser blasters in case of emergencies, but those were scattered around the basement, the ship, the van and various other places he couldn’t go without making too much noise. So much for emergencies) and pressed an ear to Sung’s bedroom door, right next to his. The voice wasn’t coming from in there, thankfully, so Meouch nudged the door open.

“Psst, Doc,” he whispered inside, barely able to see Sung’s limbs poking out from under his covers. By some miracle, that was enough to cause Sung to stir, and his head appeared from under a pile of stuffed animals.

“Hmmwha? H’llo?” Sung asked eloquently, still half asleep. When he saw Meouch in his doorway, he waved.

“Doc, someone’s in the house,” Meouch said, tightening his grip on the bass neck in his hand.

That made Sung sit up. He rubbed his eye with one hand and used the other to try and untangle himself from his sheets. “What, what? Who?” he whispered.

“I dunno, I heard a voice.” Meouch looked back into the hall, finding it to still be empty. This whole situation was giving him the heebie-jeebies.”Grab your ‘chucks and get Havve, I’ll get Phobos.” he glanced back to see Sung nod and reach a hand under his bed, feeling around for his nunchucks. Confident that Sung wouldn’t just pass out on the floor again, as he was sometimes prone to do, Meouch tiptoed back into the hall towards Phobos’s room. He put a hand on the doorknob, heard the stranger’s voice, and froze.

The voice was coming from inside Phobos’s room. Fuck.

Sung stepped out of his room, nunchucks in hand, and started heading towards Havve’s when he heard the voice and stopped. He turned to look wide-eyed at Meouch. Meouch pantomimed urgently at Phobos’s door. Sung nodded. He ducked into Havve’s room, and a moment later the two of them emerged and joined Meouch, ready for a fight. Meouch put a finger to his lips and nudged the door open.

It was dark inside, and nothing seemed initially out of place. Weapons (improvised and otherwise) at the ready, the three entered the bedroom, turned on the lights, and…

There was no one there. Just Phobos, curled up asleep, blond hair everywhere. No burglar, no drunken maniac, no evil alien come to settle a debt. Nothing. Meouch lowered his makeshift bat and looked around, confused. Where had that unfamiliar voice come from, then?

“Nah man, I got it… Just wait, I’m gonna bake the best damn pie this side of the quadrant… Hmmnnhh…”

All eyes turned to Phobos, blanket up to his ears, hair obscuring the rest of his face, completely dead asleep.

Sung blinked and padded over to the bed for a closer look. More mumbling came from beneath the sheets, and Sung’s nunchucks fell to his sides. “Holy shit.” he turned back to face the others, still looking more concerned than relieved. “He’s talking in his sleep.”

Well, that explained why Meouch hadn’t recognized the voice. He’d never heard Phobos talk before; none of them had. The guy had taken a sacred vow of silence before they’d met him. The most they’d ever heard of out his mouth was a sneeze, maybe a laugh, but even those were more airy than voice-based. For as long as they’d known him, Phobos had never talked, never said a word, never used his voice. But here he was, in his sleep, chatting up a storm.

“This bad boy can fit so many cherries in it… I’m gonna win the bake-off for sure this year… Gonna be so goooood…” Phobos trailed off again, and Meouch was half tempted to get his phone and film everything.

“SO THERE IS NO DANGER?” Havve said, shattering the relative quiet and making Meouch jump. “EXCELLENT. I LOVE BEING WOKEN UP FOR NO GOOD REASON. I’M GOING BACK TO BED. GOODNIGHT.” Without waiting for any of them to respond, Havve turned on his heel and marched out the door, tromping back to his bedroom.

“Whatever, Hogan,” Meouch grumbled as he watched the cyborg leave. Of course, Havve would be disappointed that he didn’t get to murder anybody tonight. Meouch rolled his eyes and looked back at the bed, curious of Phobos would say anything more, but it seemed Phobos was waking up. Perched up on one elbow, his hair sticking up all over the place, four bleary eyes staring at the two remaining bandmates, he yawned and gave a confused wave.

“Uh, hey, Phobs,” Sung said, not-so-subtly hiding his nunchucks behind his back. “We were just… in the neighborhood, and, uh…”

“We thought we heard someone in here,” Meouch said, putting his bass neck down and leaning it against a wall. “Turns out it was just you. Uh… sleep talking.”

That woke Phobos up pretty fast. He shot up, eyes wide, mouth clenched shut. He shook his head _no,_ his movements quick and small, almost desperate. Almost like he was in trouble.

“I mean… it was in your sleep, dude. It was involuntary. That shouldn’t count, right?” Meouch asked with a shrug. That didn’t seem to relax Phobos any. “Right...?” He looked to Sung, who just returned his shrug. Looked like he didn’t know the exact rules behind the vow of silence, either. “Phobs?”

Phobos was signing, over and over, _I don’t know, I don’t know._ He looked nervous, shoulders tense and signing unsteady. _What did I say?_

“Something about a baking contest?” Meouch sat down on the edge of the bed next to him, trying not to sit on Phobos’s legs. “We didn’t catch much aside from that.”

Phobos nodded, but didn’t sign anything more. He crammed his hands into fists and looked down into his lap.

“Well, the way I’m seeing it,” Sung said, taking a seat on an amp since he couldn’t find a chair that wasn’t buried in clothes, “you didn’t talk on purpose. You didn’t even know you were doing it. I’d say your vow of silence is still in tact, right?” He smiled, but Phobos didn’t return it, as he was still looking straight down. “Hmm. At the very least, I think that’s the last time we have a Pizza Bagel Palooza ™ after midnight. That’s when we start getting into the danger zone of weird sleep stuff.”

“Yeaaahh that’s probably for the best,” Meouch sighed. “I know I had some weird-ass dreams the last time we PBP’d too late. We don’t need the whole crew sleepwalkin’ and talkin’.”

Phobos started to sign again, but kept his head down. _Yeah, no, never again._ He paused, taking a deep breath and pushing some of his hair up and out of his face. _I can’t believe I did that…_

“You okay dude?” Meouch asked, resting his elbows on his knees. “I know your vow is like… a big thing for you.”

 _There’s not much I can do about it now. It’s just a matter of… whether or not I think I broke it._ Phobos lifted his head up a little, letting the others see his tired, milky-white eyes.

“Well,” Sung said, flashing him a smile again, “you know what I think. I say you’re in the clear, bud.”

Phobos sighed and shook his head. _I don’t know… I mean, it’s not like the silence police are going to come after me, but… still._

“What, there’s no loopholes or conditions written into this thing?” Meouch asked. He could feel himself starting to feel frustrated, more about his ignorance on the subject than anything else. He’d known Phobos for years now, and he’d never talked in-depth about his voluntary muteness. “What happens if you _do_ talk, anyway?”

Phobos was quiet (well, for him, at least), fingers fiddling absentmindedly as he thought of a response. Meouch realized, just as Phobos started signing, that his fingers had been running through major and minor scales as he essentially umm’d and uhh’d. _The vow is for me, and for my people,_ Phobos signed, finally looking directly at Meouch (Meouch assumed as much, anyway, since it was hard to tell where Phobos was looking with his blank, milky-white eyes). _They can’t speak anymore, so neither do I. If I do… I’d feel like I’d dishonor them._

“Oohhhkay,” Sung said, grinning. “So it’s not like, you say one thing and the Council of Silence will come and kill you, or anything like that?”

Phobos actually cracked a smile at that. _No, no, nothing like that,_ he signed. _It’s just… personal. It’s important to me, but it’s not life or death._

“A’ight Phobs,” Meouch said, confidently wrapping one of his arms around Phobos’s skinny shoulders. “Here’s, uhh--Here’s my professional, expert opinion: if having a fun night with your friends, getting some good deep sleep, and accidentally mumbling during said sleep is really that disrespectful towards your people… then I’m sorry, but their expectations are too damn high. You’re being too hard on yourself, man!”

“Yeah, seriously!” Sung chimed in. “You meant no disrespect. If your people were half as chill as you are, I know for a fact that they wouldn’t mind.”

 _Okay, okay,_ Phobos conceded, _that’s a fair point. Even if I was definitely the chillest person in my family._ He shot Sung a sly grin and raised an eyebrow. _Maybe… Maybe I am overreacting._

“Atta bro, there you go,” Meouch said as he tightened his arm around Phobos’s shoulders and pulled him into a tight side-hug. “Also! I propose we add a clause to your vow deal.” Phobos looked up at him, confused and a little shocked, but let him continue. “If we’re ever, like, in a battle or something, or there’s danger, and you need our help… You scream our names as loud as you can.” He sounded completely serious, which was not the norm for Meouch. “Just because Earth has been safe so far doesn’t mean it’ll be safe forever.”

“Yes, oh my gosh absolutely,” Sung said as he stood up and clapped his hands together. “Even tonight, we thought we might’ve had to fight someone who’d broken in. If anything ever happens, any of the Hater forces show up at our front door or something, you should be able to talk if you need to. Yeah?”

Phobos considered for a moment before letting out a shaky breath. _Yeah,_ he signed, only slightly hesitant to do so. He probably picked up on the fact that Meouch and Sung wouldn’t let him go back to bed without agreeing to this, first. _Yeah, okay._

Two pinpricks of red appeared in Phobos’s doorway. “IDIOT FRIENDS,” Havve said, once again ruining the moment. “YOUR INCESSANT CHATTERING IS MAKING IT DIFFICULT TO SLEEP AND RECHARGE. IF WE’RE GOING TO BE STAYING UP, I’M GOING TO HEAT UP MORE PIZZA BAGELS.”

“Havve, no!” Sung gasped, but Havve had already left and was heading towards the kitchen. Sung was quick to give chase, shouting all the while. “We can’t keep doing this!!”

“Hoh boy,” Meouch groaned with a smile. “I dunno if we’ll be gettin’ much more sleep tonight, bud.”

Phobos smirked. _I know we all agreed on no more late night pizza bagels, but… Now I really want more pizza bagels. Havve’s got me thinking about them now._

“I mean, they’re already in our systems from earlier,” Meouch reasoned. “A few more can’t hurt, right?”

They heard a crash come from the kitchen, Sung loudly whining, and the distinct sound of Havve’s electronic laughter.

“Yeah, we should go out there. C’mon,” Meouch said, taking his arm off Phobos’s shoulders and standing up. He stretched, reaching up into the air for a second, and then walked towards the door. He stopped when he felt Phobos tap him on the shoulder. He turned to look, and Phobos signed just one word:

_Thanks._

Meouch smiled. “Ah, don’t sweat it, Phobs. Now, let’s get out there before--”

Another loud crash, several thumps of boxes hitting the floor, and the smoke detector started going off.

He sighed. “Before that.”

 


End file.
